Manufacture of chair-seats.



A. WANNER, JR. MANUFACTURE OF CHAIR SEATS. APPLICATION F1110 Nov.19.1915.

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UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

ALBERT WANNEB., Jn., 0F NEW YORK, N. Y.

MANUFACTURE OF CHAIR-SEATS.

Application filed November 19, 1915.

To all whom t may concern:

Be it known that I, ALBERT VVANNER, J r., a citizen of the United States, residing at New York city, in the county of New York and State of New York, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in the Manufacture of Chair-Seats, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to chairs, for instance of the bent-wood class, whose seats are made with removable tops soas to permit the user to replace worn tops with new ones. My invention consists in a novel method of forming the removable tops of chair seats whereby certain advantages in the step of incorporating the caning or other form of woven seat proper in such to as a part thereof are effected and where y a seat top is produced which affords a perfectly plane surface on the under side and may further be made considerably thinner than is possible by any known method.

In the accompanying drawings,

Figure 1 shows a continuous wood member in transverse section;

Fig. 2 is a similar view of said member after the caning constituting the woven seat proper has been applied thereto;

Figs. 3 and 4 show said member after the further step of dividing the same in a horizontal plane has been effected, Fig. 3 being the lower and Fig. 4 the upper section or top thus produced;

Fig. 5 is a view corresponding to Fig. 2, but illustrating a modification of the method;

Fig. 6 is a view corresponding to Fig. 4l, but illustrating the top produced by the method illustrated by Fig. 5;

Figs. 7 and 8 are sectional views, on a larger scale, of the seat tops shown in Figs. 4 and 6, respectively, forming parts of chair seats; and,

Fig. 9 is a plan of a chair seat having one of such tops.

A suitable length of wood is first bent into the form of an endless member a, the ends thereof being secured together in any manner well known. Preferably, the piece of wood has one transverse dimension greater than the other, and when the bending is performed it is that dimension which is parallel to the axis of bending. Said member has a continuous groove b or rout formed in one of the plane surfaces thereof.

Next, having cut a piece c of flexible Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented J an. 1, 1918.

VSerial No. 62,344.

sheet material which is to form the seat machine caning or the like) to circular form, the diameter thereof being somewhat greater than that of the groove or rout b, and having applied glue or other cement (Z preferably continuously in the groove, a binding strip c, such as a reed, is superimposed upon the marginal portion of the piece c over and continuously of the groove and then jammed into the same, it being understood that the groove is preferably suiiiciently narrow so that some compression of the marginal part of the caning c and the strip e must take place before they will` enter the groove, whereby when entered therein the friction set up will contribute toward stoutly maintaining the joint which will be formed after the cement sets. Of course, the piece of caning c is subjected to considerable tension by this operation, wherefore until the cement sets the strip e is by some means, such as clamps, positively held in place.

Next, in a plane, as f, which is parallel with the plane surfaces of the member a, the latter is sawed or otherwise divided into two parts, g and it (Figs. 3 and et), the part it thus produced being the product aimed at by the present method.y Y

The present method possesses the advan tage that by joining the seat-proper c to the element that is to form its frame (to wit, the part of member It above the plane f in Fig. 2) before such element is cut away from the part g of member a, the yielding and bending to which saidpart would be subject under the severe strain imposed thereon incident to the tension of the material c when it is bound in place by forcing the strip e into the groove d' does not have to be prevented by special means, since the strength of the material of the piece a is sufficient of itself to resist such yielding and bending.

Again, it will be noted that the under side of the frame of the part L, or seat top, thus produced will be perfectly fiat or plane. In this connection it may be remarked that it has heretofore been proposed to divide a continuous member, as a, in a plane between its plane surfaces, and then weave onto one of the sections thus produced as a frame, having rst provided a continuous series of holes therein for the purpose, a cane seat, but in that case, since the cane strands extended from hole to hole at the relatively under side of the frame, it Was necessary either to groove the chair frame or ring on Which such a seat top was to be superimposed to accommodate the strands or countersink the strands in the under side oi the frame for the caning. According to my method since the seat proper c is not Woven onto its frame7 but is joined to the member a (in substantially the Way described) already Woven, the connection of the seat proper to its frame not depending on strands of the caning being passed in loops through such frame but only on the seat proper being at its margin entered somewhat into it, the seat top produced may be -attached to any seat ring or frame of a chair Without preliminary treatment of, as by grooving, either (see .F ig. 7). A indicates the chair frame.

Moreover7 the seattop produced, may be as thin as desired, so long as the plane ot' division does not extend through the caning. Attention is directed to Figs.V 5, 6 and 8, Where the plane of division f intercepts the groove so that the frame of the seat top in eifect comprises two concentric Wooden sections 2 and j oined only by the glue or other cement cl and the caning margin and strip e embedded in such cement.

The method herein described may, as indicated by the dotted lines at 7c and Z in Fig. 8, be repeated With respect to the part g ot' member L which remains after the first seat top is produced until the Whole of the material thereof is used up.

Having thus fully described my invention, what I claim as nenI and desire to secure by Letters Patent is The method herein described consisting in forming a bent-Wood endless member, attaching a piece of sheet material vto one plane surface of said member continuously thereof and so that said piece will be held uniformly taut by said member, and finally f dividing said member in a plane between its plane surfaces and close to but not through said piece of sheet material.

In testimony whereof I aflix my signature.

ALBERT WANNER, JR.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for ve cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents,

Washington, D. C. 

